Only two in three Oregon high school students graduate in four years

View full sizeBeth Nakamura/The OregonianStudents in the class of 2011 from Portland's Benson High wait to enter their graduation ceremony. Statewide, only 67 percent of students in their class earned diplomas.

Oregon high schools again failed to graduate one of every three students last year, figures out today show. More than 11,000 young people in the high school class of 2011 dropped out.

State school Superintendent Susan Castillo cheered the increase in the state's on-time graduation rate, which rose from 66 percent for the classes of 2009 and 2010 to 67 percent for the class of 2011.

But Gov. John Kitzhaber called the 67 percent rate "unacceptable."

Most of Oregon's large and medium-size districts failed to get even 70 percent of the students who entered high school in fall 2007 to earn a diploma within four years.

Oregon graduation rates

High school dropouts are 50 percent more likely to be unemployed than people who earn a diploma and never go to college, and their annual earnings are dramatically lower -- less than $22,000 on average in 2010 compared with $29,000 for those with a high school education, said Brenda Turner, occupational economist with the Oregon Employment Department.

"They definitely should think about it," Turner said. "Getting a high school diploma is going to decrease your likelihood of being unemployed."

"One point up is better than one point down," he said. "But we all must work to deliver better results for Oregon students."

He said his plan to require every Oregon school board to spell out how fast it aims to raise its graduation rate would help. The plan is before the Legislature next month. He also said lagging districts must learn from those getting the best results.

"We've got to pause and acknowledge, 'Hey, this is tremendous.' We can't always beat ourselves up," said Roosevelt Principal Charlene Williams. "We are definitely doing some things right, and this is a perfect trajectory indicating we are on our way ... while also being clear that we have a ways to go."

Hood River Valley High School, which educates many children of farm workers and where 40 percent of the students are Latino and 58 percent are low income, posted an on-time graduation rate of 84 percent.

That far outshone the rates in Beaverton and Corvallis, where parent education levels are much higher and only about one-third of students low income.

Hood River Valley Principal Karen Neitzel said close attention to each student is the key. Adults at the school follow up quickly, with home visits if needed, if a student is frequently absent or shows a sudden dip in grades.

The school makes sure to connect with parents, including personal phone calls in Spanish to Spanish-speakers. About 50 students a year are called into special meetings with their parents, teachers and counselors to find customized ways to keep the student on the path to a diploma, Neitzel said.

Mental health counseling, on-campus day care for children of teen parents and prevention outreach workers also help, she said.

Each May, the school holds a huge "first in family" party to fete the many graduates who are the first in their family to earn a diploma. The event makes a big impression on younger siblings, too, Neitzel said.

"I have never met a parent who didn't think getting a diploma was a really important thing," she said.

Tigard-Tualatin once again posted a much higher graduation rate -- 82 percent -- than similar districts. About 40 percent of its high school students are low income and about 20 percent are Latino -- similar to statewide demographics.

"From the day a child arrives in kindergarten until they are a reader, we have a hair-on-fire emergency to make sure they are a reader," Saxton said. That pays off, because teens who can't read can't stand to come to school and won't graduate, he said.

View full sizeStephanie Yao/The Oregonian/2009Tigard High teacher Marc Jolley leads intensive reading classes designed to get high school students up to grade level in reading. Tigard-Tualatin educators have honed their approach over many years so that virtually every student becomes a capable reader.

"If you can't read, you're doomed, in education and in life. If you cannot read and you're a teenager, you are completely incapable of success at school. Who wants to go do that every day?"

The graduation rates for each school and district are based on all the students who began high school during 2007-08 anywhere in the country who end up enrolled in an Oregon public school during high school. Unless a school has evidence a student on its rolls transferred to another high school, the student must earn a diploma or else be counted as a dropout from the school he last attended.

The federal government considers any high school with a four-year graduation rate below 60 percent in need of immediate and intensive turnaround.

Nine medium-size or large Oregon high schools fell below that threshold, three of them in Portland. Two of those have been awarded millions in federal funds to carry out plans to improve: Madison, where the graduation rate rose to 57 percent, and Roosevelt.

Reynolds officials say they believe they failed to correct inaccuracies in their data and that their true rate was higher. No other large school saw its graduation rate plunge 14 percentage points in one year, as Reynolds' data appear to show.